Faith and Power. Art in the epoch of Ivan the Terrible

The Crown of Kazan
Russia, Moscow, the Moscow Kremlin workshops, second half of the XVIth century.
Gold, silver, precious stones, fur, casting, embossing, engraving.
Icon with a cross and panagia in a lidded reliquary
Russia, Moscow. Mid XVIth century - 1621.
Gold, silver, precious stones, embossing, engraving, enamels.
Sakkos of metropolitan Macarius
1543-1564. Velvet - Italy, the XVIth century, embroidery over shoulders and sleeves - Russia, Moscow, mid. XVIth century.
Gilded velvet, taffeta, watered silk, weaving, embroidery, basma.
Little container with relics
Byzantium, the XII century.
Silver, wood, embossing, gilding.
Ladle
Russia, Moscow, the second half of the XVIth century.
Silver, embossing, carving, enamels.
Ritual vessel with a removable lid
Western Europe, the XVIth century.
Glasswork.
Icon "John Lestvichnik"
Russia, Moscow. Painting - mid. XVIth century, cover - 1554.
Icon "Council of Our Lady"
Moscow, the XVIth century.
Wood, gesso, fabric, egg tempera, gilding, filigree.
Icon "Our Lady on the altar with Solomon and David"
Moscow, painting - the 1560s, cover - the XVIth century.
Wood, Wood, gesso, fabric, egg tempera, basma, filigree.
Icon "The Judgment Day
Russia, mid. XVIth century.
Wood, fabric, egg tempera.

December, 12, 2007 - April, 6, 2008

The One-Pillar Chamber of the Patriarch’s Palace

Organized by:: The Moscow Kremlin Museums

01# The Crown of Kazan The Moscow Kremlin Museums represent exhibits, executed during the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and reveal the interaction of Orthodoxy and temporal power through the artworks of the Russian Middle Ages. Headed by the Tsar Russia has become a united centralized country. The ideology of Muscovy and tsarism was implanted and espoused by means of social and political programmes as well as Art and cultural heritage. The exhibition includes items of a great value, which played a role of historical and cultural monuments, having popularized the idea of supernatural power of the royal family, the dominant role of the Russian church in preserving the Christianity.

The first section of the exhibition is dedicated to the ideal image of the Tsar as an anointed sovereign. The process of his sacralization was successfully finished in the XVIth century. The coronation of Ivan the Terrible in 1547, birth of his first son, who was to become a successor to the throne, and other occasions laid the foundation of the ceremonial traditions, including creation of precious works of art and religious relics, such as measure icons, communion-table gospels, altar crosses etc.

The idea of the Russian Peculiar People and saving activity of the Orthodox Church gave rise to a rapprochement between the temporal power and people. The second section of the exhibition reveals a historical and social mission of the Russian Church and State under Ivan the Terrible. The display consists of icons which are the very Russian expression of the religious feelings, representing sacral images of God and other saints. The works “Apocalypse” and “The Judgment Day” illustrate the motifs of sacrifice and martyrdom testified the expectations of doomsday during the XVIth century. But all the exhibits are full of solemn and festive experience of explicit belief in God.

The exhibition and its theme of interaction between Art, politics and cultural wealth, when forms and artistic features of items are closely connected to the spiritual feeling and religious subject matter, will be interesting not only for researchers but for the general public.